Unterwegs

IC Da Nang Sun Peninsula Resort

Were you happy with the hotel/stay?
No. (Stay was a few weeks ago)

Which room did you book and which upgrade did you get?
Booked cheapest, got a bigger room in the lowest row of regular buildings. I believe it is what they call atrium suite.

How is the resort?
It is around 25 min cab ride from Da Nang airport and downtown Da Nang. There is not much on that peninsula yet. They provide a free shuttle bus a few times a day (twice if my memory still works) to Da Nang and on to Hoi An.
The place is big. Very big. At first glance it looks like it has 500 or more rooms, but in reality it is less than 100. It occupies the hillside of a bay.
Construction in a lot of areas is still going on and most likely will for a while (lots of noise, big concrete trucks driving on the small walkways inside the resort).
The architecture is very unique and very nice, the problems are in the details (see below).
It must have cost a fortune to build this place and will cost a fortune to maintain. Seems it will be a huge challenge to turn a profit since a lot of the money spent does not provide benefits for the guests. And it also seems they already severely cut back on staff training, staff quality, RA recognition and in several other areas.

How are the rooms?
Relatively big with a very strange decor. Very unlike other ICs which mainly are more minimalistic and tasteful. This is none of the two.
The room had a big terrace with two daybeds (more like XXXL sofas). Big roof, not much sunlight at the terrace and no place to sit in the sun.
Layout is weird. Lots of clutter, but almost no usable space. No shelfs to put your things.
Minibar is at the far end of the outside terrace and has no light. If you need something you have to find it in the dark. If you need a bottle opener hope you find it in the dark (unless there is none like in our room).
The work desk is outside. Pretty useless during the day since the light is too bright to read your notebook screen. Useless at night unless you want to be eaten by the bugs (they even warn you in the welcome letter about the active wildlife they have there).
Pool is a long walk away. They provide buggy service to pool/restaurants/beach - good unless you are stuck behind a concrete delivery truck.

How is the club?
There is no club lounge. Contrary to what other posters said there is no free breakfast, no afternoon tea, no free massage etc.

And the restaurants?
Two restaurants are open.
Restaurants are overpriced, some dishes were around twice what you pay in other 5 star resorts in Vietnam. They have you trapped there and you feel it.
Food quality is what you would expect at a normal 4 or 5 star, nothing unique and certainly not worth the extra money they charge for it.
Service is more miss than hit, friendly but lacking even basic skills.

Staff
Some are nice and try to help, but it seems overall they lack training and even basic English skills. Just one example was the conversation at check in about free breakfast for RAs. After my question just a blank stare. Then i asked if breakfast is included. Answer: You can have breakfast in the restaurant. Next question: Is it free? Blank stare. Then: Do we have to pay for breakfast: yes
Never saw any personal butler.


What is good and bad?
Good
- Location, away from busy life
- friendly staff (but unfortunately they need training, language and other)
- Architecture of the place in general

Bad
- Location, not much to do there and time consuming to get to Danang
- Long distances, need to rely on buggy service which is time consuming
- Room layout not useful
- Food overpriced for average quality
- except room upgrade not much of RA recognition
- Lots of construction noise from early in the morning till late


Value for $ or Priority Club Points? Would you return?
No. If it is back on the pointbreak i would reconsider, but for what they charge you can do much, much better in Vietnam.